Thread: Michael Eric Dyson: Blacks must march on RNC convention with ‘revolutionary intention

Michael Eric Dyson: Blacks must march on RNC convention with ‘revolutionary intentions’

By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times
Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Author and activist Michael Eric Dyson is calling on blacks to march on the Republican National Convention in Cleveland with “revolutionary intentions” and preparedness for violence.

Mr. Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University, said it’s imperative for black people to rise up against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, as well as his supporters who are “driven by rage” that a black man is president.

“I know that these words can be read as a call to violence unseen at a national political convention since Chicago in 1968. So be it,” Mr. Dyson wrote Wednesday in an op-ed for The New Republic. “As Martin Luther King Jr. taught us, it is a risk we must take. We have a positive moral obligation to protest the nomination of this racist demagogue for president.

“It is not simply a matter of voicing disapprobation for Trump; his supporters, too, must be answered. They are driven by rage that a black man today still represents a nation that once held black folk in chains, and which still depends on the law to check their social and political aspirations,” he continued. “Barack Obama so spooked the bigoted whites of this country that we are now faced with a racist explicitness that hasn’t emerged since the height of the civil rights movement.

Mr. Dyson said they must march on the convention to proclaim Mr. Trump’s “moral repugnance and political illegitimacy.”

“It is an opportunity, with the whole world watching, to declare Donald Trump the worst of the American political mind and soul,” he argued. “The time to sit idly by has passed. To paraphrase Marx, pundits and critics — and even sympathizers with moral principles — interpret the world, but the point is to change it. You can’t do that from the comfort of an office cubicle, through a Tweet, or even in a church sanctuary. The deeds of hate being cooked up by Donald Trump, directly or implicitly, must be met with the willingness of good folk to speak up, and most important, to show out. And with that knowledge, some Americans — and I expect many of them to be black — will venture to Cleveland with pure hearts and revolutionary intentions.

“In calling for confrontation, I am probably bringing down the worst violence against my own people, asking them — us — to stand in the vanguard of challenging bias and hatred. The penalties will be higher for my people than for others. But then, there is nothing new in that,” he continued. “I would argue that to resist the sweep of malevolence signified by Trump’s prominence is a tragic counterpoint to a vote for Obama in 2008. It is the only way to find the right side of history again. There is no option but to go to Cleveland, to raise our voices, put our bodies to work, and maybe even at risk.

“How bad could it be in Cleveland?” Mr. Dyson asked. “It’s hard to say. If the force used against Black Lives Matter protesters in Ferguson and Oakland and Baltimore is any gauge, it may be very bad indeed. But if King proved anything, it’s that the threat of violence mustn’t dissuade from acting those who would do good. In fact, King used violence, integrating it into his strategy of civil disobedience. Displays of white madness let the nation in on its dirty secret: It was willing to blast black bodies with water hoses, and unleash police dogs on innocent black flesh. King sacrificed black bodies to make white America look plainly at its barbarism. Trump’s convention may be the next proving ground for this costly technique.”

The ACLU of Ohio filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Cleveland, accusing officials of infringing on free speech rights with “arbitrary” restrictions on demonstrations at the Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 18-21.

The ACLU wants the city to reduce the restrictions within the city’s convention “event zone,” which covers much of Downtown, and to immediately act upon permit applications from groups seeking to protest the convention, Cleveland.com reported.

As it stands, the city has designated Perk Plaza and Willard Park as areas where protesters can apply for permits to set up tables and “public art” installations. The city also said it will build a “speakers platform” with a PA system in Public Square and designate a parade route, Cleveland.com reported.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...on-rnc-conven/

For real? A Georgetown University "sociology" professor is inciting protests by black people against Trump at the Republican Convention?

Our world is totally upside down!! Trump is the only candidate who talks about solving high black unemployment. Trump is the only candidate who wants to reverse this free trade treason disaster and bring our jobs and money back home to create millions and millions of good full time jobs with benefits. Trump is the only candidate who talks about stopping illegal immigration and curbing other immigration that steals jobs and educations from Americans including black Americans.

The Democrats have gone crazy. They are so afraid of real change that reverses these immigration and trade policies that are bankrupting our nation and impoverishing our people. They know Trump will achieve his goals, improve our country, made America great again, and they can't stand it.

What a pathetic state of affairs.

Well, you know what they say, when you don't have anything good to say, attack the person who does. We call this persecution. I don't think Martin Luther King would be very pleased with black Americans protesting Donald Trump whose policies will improve the lives of black Americans tremendously, the same as all Americans.

Why aren't these "blacks" marching on the border stopping the invasion of our Country? They are directly affected by this massive invasion. Taking their jobs, suppressing wages, taking welfare and food stamps, taking over neighborhoods and housing, overcrowding schools, bringing more drugs, gangs, crime...while our citizens are getting less! YOU lose again...you are blinded by your own hate and chip on your shoulder instead of using your brains.

Wake up people!

For some reason many black leaders elevate themselves by keeping other black people down. If black people raise themselves up economically, they raise themselves up socially, this means the "leaders" are no longer as special as they once seemed. It is the worst kind of intra-racial supremacy. It's why Obama hasn't done anything for black Americans and has in fact made their plight far worse than it was in 2008. At the end of the day, it's why Oprah Winfrey endorsed Obama and why she is endorsing Hillary Clinton. Oprah thinks talk makes a difference, when we know only action makes the difference. It's why Oprah from time to time will have giveaways on her show, like new little cars for everyone in the audience, it's the same "Let them eat cake" syndrome that got Marie Antoinette beheaded. It's why Oprah and Obama, both from Chicago, give donations in Oprah's case and taxpayer money in Obama's case to foreign countries, while black Americans are trapped in Chicago in "projects" unfit for rats to live in, owned by people like Valerie Jarrett and funded by HUD. It's why they want gun control in Florida to prevent "terrorism", when Chicago has the stiffest gun laws of any place in America and yet the highest death by gun rate in the country due to the number of gun murders.

We're in our Period of Ironies and Opposites. We have one chance to save ourselves from this leadership sickness. And that's Trump. Can he overcome all the massive corrupt dishonest biased opposition?

I think so, but we'll see. It depends totally on how hard Trump Supporters work from now until November.

your right judy
wake the hell up it your country fight

Calling for violence at at convention this is obviously the plan and the instigators should be arrested. I guess it all depends on who you are if the laws apply to you or not. This guy should be the first one arrested for inciting a riot. This kind of thing doesn't prove anything except ignorance and more tax payers money wasted to say nothing of public property that most likely will be damaged. All it does is make the rioters look worse in the eyes of the world. It won't change a thing except some people will end up with a police record for the rest of their lives.

It's such a shame, these "leaders" trying to turn this election into a civil rights issue, when the issue is saving our country for all Americans.